UPDATED WITH FAIRFAX CITY ADMINISTRATOR COMMENT: In the wake of concerns raised by Eastern Iowa Airport leaders and some Fairfax residents, Alliant Energy has announced it is “deprioritizing” a site near Fairfax as a proposed location for a new natural gas-fired power plant.
The decision comes as Fairfax residents hosted the first of two town hall meetings this week to discuss Alliant’s proposal.
“We appreciate the invitation to participate in the town hall series regarding our proposed combined cycle project,” an Alliant Energy spokesperson said. “While Alliant Energy has not selected a site for the proposed project, we are deprioritizing the original Fairfax location at this time and continue to evaluate the other viable sites in the region through our site selection process.”
Alliant has not specifically identified the other sites being considered for the plant. The spokesperson also said that while Alliant originally considered filing a proposal for the plant to the Iowa Utilities Commission in October, “our timeline for doing so is now fluid since we are still in the site selection process.”
Fairfax officials hosted an informational meeting this week to discuss the proposed plant with local residents. As of Friday morning, another informational meeting was scheduled Oct. 8 at Fairfax City Hall.
Fairfax city administrator Chris Philipp said the city intends to “invite Alliant Energy to relook at the industrial site already established in Fairfax.”
“This site is by far the best possible site for a power plant for all residents of the area,” Mr. Philipp said. “This site offers the most economical rates for electrical customers, and the best possible scenario for the City of Fairfax.”
Officials have said that the power plant’s location is based, at least in part, on rising power demand from data centers under construction on the southwest side of Cedar Rapids.
“The location of the data centers, in the city limits of Cedar Rapids, require that this new power plant be sited somewhere in, or within close proximity to, the community of Fairfax,” Mr. Philipp said. “The impact of this facility will be felt by Fairfax residents regardless if it is sited within our current city limits or not.”
At a meeting in September, which included the Fairfax City Council’s council’s consideration of a zoning code amendment that would allow a “special exception” to the city’s heavy industrial code for power plants, several audience members offered comments, mostly in opposition to Alliant’s plan.
Torrie Lefebure Lewis, who lives near Fairfax, said based on data from a natural gas power plant in Marshalltown, she felt the Fairfax plant could produce several harmful emissions, from carbon dioxide to nitrogen oxide, sulfur dioxide and methane. She also said the plant, along 76th Avenue on the southeast side of Fairfax, would be located close to the city’s sports complex.
Fairfax officials had not taken a formal stance on the proposal, opting to seek additional information, but said the plant could generate substantial revenue for the city. Currently, Fairfax collects just over $11,000 from utility excise taxes, while Marshalltown, with a natural gas power plant already in operation, receives nearly $1.6 million in utility excise tax revenue.
The proposal was first unveiled by Alliant Energy in a meeting with airport officials in June, and at a Cedar Rapids Airport Commission meeting in October, commissioner Barry Boyer said the airport “felt blindsided” by the plan’s time frame.
Eastern Iowa Airport leaders also said the proposed site, just a few miles west of the airport, raised a number of safety concerns, from flight path obstacles imposed by the plant’s tall condensing stacks to visibility issues created by “plumes” from the stacks themselves.
A report commissioned for the Cedar Rapids Airport Commission and submitted in September amplified those concerns, indicating that the plant should not be built at the Fairfax site due to “concerns for airport safety,” and “a more suitable alternative location should be identified for the facility.”
Mr. Philipp said the city also intends to engage with the Eastern Iowa Airport to discuss the airport’s future plans, including the construction of a third runway, which was cited by the airport as a major concern with the proposed plant site.
“Alliant’s decision to ‘deprioritize’ the primary site within the Big Cedar Industrial Park is not surprising based on the (airport’s) input which we feel contains some mis-information and exaggeration of several impacts to their current operations,” he said. “Although our community understands and respects the role the Cedar Rapids Airport plays in the region, our city cannot abandon our current and future economic development goals, long-range land use priorities, and city expansion direction based on the airport’s plans.”
